The Moonstone Cup

by Cyanide

Chapter 9

The steps down into the mountain from the plateau were wide and flat, well-suited to accommodate a number of ponies walking abreast. Ahead of Twilight, down in the cave, she could hear chattering voices, references to her and Trixie occasionally echoing up the stone hallway. Twilight, herself, was grateful to be walking with five of her friends, instead of having to deal with questions and cheering.

"You sure you're alright, Twi?" Applejack asked. She was walking closely to Twilight, protectively. "That was a real good kick you took."

Twilight rolled her shoulder uncomfortably. After the match, Twilight had walked over to check on Trixie and been rewarded by Trixie yelling at her and kicking her in the shoulder before she lapsed back into unconsciousness. The hoofprint still throbbed and Twilight expected to end up with a bruise. "I'm fine, AJ," she said. "I'm more worried about Trixie."

Applejack and Rainbow Dash both made dismissive noises. Pinkie Pie, bouncing along at the rear of the group, piped up cheerfully. "She'll be alright, Twilight! Fluttershy and Princess Luna will get her all fixed up! Besides, it's not your fault!"

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked.

"It's against the rules to hurt someone, right? If it was your fault, you'd have broken the rules and gotten in trouble! But you didn't, so it can't be your fault!"

Twilight didn't answer. She wasn't so sure. Trixie's injury was just another thing gnawing at her. Maybe Trixie had been hurt when she fell, or maybe Najstariot just hadn't noticed. She continued walking and not speaking.

The group continued down into the bowels of the mountain. The cave was wide and well-lit, but still seemed claustrophobic to Twilight. The echoing walls amplified the fading chatter of the ponies ahead, and Twilight tried desperately to tune them out.

"Twilight, dear, are you alright?" Rarity asked in concern. "You're grinding your teeth."

Twilight blinked and looked over at Rarity, who was walking apace with her. "I'm... fine, thanks," Twilight said, unconvincingly. She was more than not fine. Twilight could practically taste the anger she'd be carrying since the match with Trixie had started, and it was only slowly fading.

Further down the winding stairs they continued, the chatter ahead vanishing as the other ponies exited the cave. Twilight sighed in relief.

"So, Twilight," Rainbow Dash asked, slowly. "Got any plan for your next match?"

Twilight winced inwardly. "No, not really, Rainbow," she said, dully. "I've just been making things up as I go along."

"Aw, jeez," Rainbow said, in a pained voice. She walked faster, catching up to Twilight and walking beside her, opposite Rarity. "Twilight, you're telling me you've been winging it this whole time?"

Twilight ground her teeth again, then turned her head slightly to look at Rainbow out of the corner of her eye. "I'm doing just fine, Rainbow," she said, caustically. "I read up about the tournament before I started. The best competitors always adapt to their competition and think on their feet."

Rainbow's eyes narrowed, and she moved up closer to Twilight. "You're not doing just fine," Rainbow snapped. "Trixie nearly took you down out there."

Twilight stopped on the stairs, turning to glare at Rainbow Dash. "I beat her, didn't I?" Twilight asked angrily, her ears twitching.

"Yeah, you beat her, alright," came the retort. "So that's what you're gonna do? More miraculous last-minute comebacks?"

Stepping between Twilight and Rainbow Dash, Spike looked up at the two ponies. "Um, guys, come on, you don't need to fight-"

"Stay out of this, Spike!" Twilight shouted. The little dragon blanched and scurried away, behind Rarity.

"Oh, yeah, now you're yelling at Spike, too?" Rainbow Dash snarled, floating up a few inches above the stairs.

"Twilight, that's not very-"

"Not now, Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash yelled.

"Rainbow? Twilight?" Applejack drawled, mildly.

The two ponies turned to look at her, and barked in unison. "What?"

"Both o' you, sit down an' shut up."

Rainbow and Twilight were both taken aback. Twilight sat down on her haunches, practically automatically, while Rainbow dropped back down to the steps and rested against the wall of the cave, glaring at Twilight sullenly. Applejack looked down at the duo through lidded eyes.

"Twilight, Rainbow Dash is right. You need a plan or you're not gonna get past the semis." Twilight frowned and sank down, abashed. Rainbow smirked at her, smugly.

"Rainbow," Applejack continued. Rainbow Dash's smirk vanished instantly. "You need to lay off Twilight. She's had a hard couple o' days and you've never been in a magic competition before. How long's the Best Young Flyer competition?"

"Um, about half a day," Rainbow mumbled.

"Right. And Twilight's got another day o' this 'fore she finishes, assuming she passes the semis this afternoon." Applejack continued while Twilight stared at her hooves, quietly. "Come on, both o' you. We're all friends, right?"

"Yeah," Rainbow Dash said, after a moment's silence. "Sorry, Twilight."

Twilight looked up, first at Applejack's neutral face and then at Rainbow's mirthless smile. She grimaced, then put on an unconvincing smile herself, her anger fading into the background noise of stress and anxiety. "Thanks, Rainbow. Sorry for yelling at you. I know you're just trying to help."

Spike sighed in relief and Twilight turned to look at him with a smile. "Thanks, AJ," he said.

Rarity smiled up at Applejack. "Very eloquent."

"Well, thank you both."

"Hey, I got it!" Rainbow Dash cried, suddenly jumping to her hooves. "Twilight, you've got hours before your next match. Let's go get you prepped and relaxed."

Twilight climbed to her hooves and looked at Rainbow Dash in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"AJ," Rainbow said. "Take Pinkie and Rarity and go make sure Trixie hasn't killed Fluttershy. Or vice-versa. Twilight, Spike and I are going to the big library downtown."

---

"Okay, this is boring."

The Canterlot library was much less sepulchral during the day, with ponies and coming and going and the librarians working on the stacks. Twilight had isolated herself in a stack of books in the reference section. Spike, with Rainbow's help, continued to fetch more, and the piles were starting to be suspiciously architectural. "Shh!" Twilight hissed, not wanting to be interrupted.

The trio had passed the square on the way to the library, stopping just long enough to learn the name of Twilight's next opponent, Zlatan. Some cursory research had revealed that he was a dragon mage, young in dragon terms but still nearly a hundred years old. Zlatan was distinguished enough that he was published in a number of books, and Twilight was doing her best to chew her way through his writings as quickly as possible.

Twilight glanced up momentarily from one of Zlatan's earlier works, a treatise on 'localized dimensional manipulation'. She looked up at Rainbow Dash, who was hovering above her heap of books, looking out the overhead windows longingly.

"You know, Rainbow," she called out, her voice low but audible. "They have a young adult section you could go look at."

Rainbow drifted down, rolling her eyes. "I'm not that bored."

Twilight shrugged, then looked over her shoulder where Spike was setting down another stack of books. "Is that everything?" she asked.

Spike wiped his brow with the back of his claw, panting. "Yep, that's all the numbers you gave me." He looked at the pile of books, appraisingly. "The librarians are gonna be furious, Twilight."

Twilight giggled. "We'll put them back before we leave."

Twilight dove back into her book, tuning out Rainbow and Spike. After reading through a number of Zlatan's works, Twilight had to be impressed. After some early work on summoning theory, Zlatan had begun working in the somewhat dangerous area of magical field theory. Recently, in the last 30 years, he'd begun applying the fairly new idea that the world was not special and could be manipulated in the same way alternate dimensions and higher planes could be.

The records of his previous three appearances at the Moonstone Cup were the first things Twilight had read. Out of three, he had advanced to the finals twice, but had never won the Cup. His favored strategy seemed to be to alter the physical nature of his opponent's half of the field to deprive them of their magic entirely. Twilight had shuddered when she read that.

An hour, then two passed with Twilight poring over Zlatan's papers, responses to his papers, experimental verification of his work and every other relevant scrap she could find. He had a reasonably well-received sociological article on magical mass psychology and his hypotheses about the nature of a society without magic. There were a number of articles in ecological journals from unicorn researchers using his work as a basis to develop the unsettling idea of 'peak magic', that there was a limited amount of magical energy in the world and it was being exhausted. Twilight would have to remember to ask the princesses about that.

Most important, however, was strategy. This would all be wasted - albeit enjoyably wasted - time if it didn't add up to a strategy for fighting him.

His spells were big, and slow-casting, Twilight had gleaned. The Cup competitors that had beat him had done it largely by pressing their attacks and not letting him use any of his more drastic dimensional spells. Twilight was not a combat magician, however, and didn't think simply hammering him with summons and telekinetic strikes would do it; he was unlikely to even feel the latter unless Twilight hit him hard enough that she risked injuring him.

Her Drain spell had been remarkably effective against Gianna, and Twilight wondered what it would be like to siphon the energy from a dragon. That would be a good strategy, she thought. Use smaller spells to begin with and hit him with a Drain as he prepared one of his big dimensional spells, then expend the energy...

How?

Twilight fumbled with her books as she wracked her brain for a followup. Come on, Twilight, you can do this! It'll be easy, this time, you won't even have to think of something on the fly. You just need something that can counter some of the most powerful magic spells you've ever seen. Twilight grimaced as if she'd just bit into a lemon.

Of course, there was everything in front of her laying out the principles and details behind Zlatan's dimension-warping spells. And Draining a dragon would provide more than enough power to fuel them, even if he blocked the drain quickly.

Twilight grinned and closed the book, then looked over her shoulder. Spike and Rainbow Dash were deeply absorbed in a large-format comic book. "Guys!" Twilight called out. The two jumped, and Spike closed the comic, guiltily.

"Come on, help me clean this up. I need to get to my match!"

Comments

[Gwenio]

She thinks using a Drain Spell on a dragon is a good idea after the side effects from using it on a gryphon?

I sense mayhem incoming should she fail to expend enough of it.

[Cyanide]

155430

Nope!

....Twilight gets literally High off that spell so it will impair her judgement, she's going into her next match stressed and emotionally compromised, and her plan to defeat a reality warper is to use his own spell and magic against himself after channelling it through herself....

Add to that, that if any gryphon magic remains within her, even by mistake, she may not end up the pony she was coming into the match going out, physically or mentally.

[Gwenio]

155479

Did I miss the place it indicated there could be long lasting effects from a drain spell, or are you just assuming there are?

[Karrakaz]

well.... i think twilight might actually warp a portion of equestria big enough for it to pose a problem... and then: queue dragon queen lady...
she's still gonna mop the floor with that guy though.

anyways, great chapter, can't wait for more

[RTStephens]

155431
Good to hear! There's a lot of story left to tell with Trixie if you choose to do so.

Nice to see Twilight actually doing her homework. What a shocker!

Looking forward to more of this!

[Doctor Whooves]

"You know, Rainbow," she called out, her voice low but audible. "They have a young adult section you could go look at."

Ooooooh. Burn.

[nightelf37]

Draining magic? Even before discovering this, I had some ideas on something called a "power transfer" spell. Effectively, it serves the same function as Drain, but it can also go the other way. I theorized that it can work on just unicorns (and even alicorns), but other kinds like changelings is not a good idea.

Just spouting out random stuff.

[Keepcalmandcupcakes]

This is going to be awsome. I mean, "reality warping"? That's just awsome.

[Airstream]

Oh dear sweet Celestia, he warps space-time? And he hasn't even won the cup? What has Twilight gotten herself into?

[AppleTank]

His ex is the TARDIS.

[Esarosa]

"AJ," Rainbow said. "Take Pinkie and Rarity and go make sure Trixie hasn't killed Fluttershy. Or vice-versa.

I lol'd

[Flare]

Bwahahahhah, oh i know Its late but, ohh how i laughed when the name Zlatan came up :D

[Atom Cracker]

101greatgoals.com/wp-content/gallery/gimages/1352928097133_0.gif

[PaulAsaran]

I find it extremely odd that Rainbow, the least likely pony to even think about a forming a plan and who practically defines one-the-spot action, would be the one to ask about Twilight having a plan. It feels... OOC.

I predict that Zlatan will be unpredictable, having recognized his mistakes from previous tournaments.

[xDARKxALLxSEERx]

game on your move time space wizard

[FOXTrot2]

This battles is going into warp space!

[Commander Darklight]

"so space & time manipulation are your specialty. ok im going to beat you with one spell ready."

twi procedess to teleport pinkie onto the field

"I would like you to meet pinkie pie this mare regularly bends space and time over a haystack and sodomizes it, have fun"

[Prince Leviathan]

Ah is this where she's gonna go evolve into Rapidash by bursting into flames?
Me thinks so